Album Review: You and I from Dianne Fraser

Album:  You and I
Artist:  Dianne Fraser
Label:  Blujazz
Website:  https://diannefraser.com/

Dianne Fraser's debut release You and I is a tribute to the music of Leslie Bricusse, a 20th century composer whose music is featured in several theatre musicals and motion pictures.  Fraser captures Bricusse's familiar repertoire with the soul of a bard and the expressive voicing of a balladeer.  She reawakens timeless classics, giving them a contemporary shine.

Fraser delivers an awesome mashup of “Crazy World” and “If I Ruled the World.”  The music for “Crazy World” is written by Henry Mancini for the film Victor/Victoria.  Bricusse wrote “If I Ruled the World” with Cyril Ornadel for a lesser-known musical called Pickwick.  Fraser's silky vocals cradle the verses, seamlessly sewing the two tracks into one heavenly aria.  

An avid student of the French language, her performance of "Le Jazz Hot," another tune from the movie Victor/Victoria, displays Fraser's refined style emblematic of Edith Piaf endowed with a graceful punch reflective of Maurice Chevalier.  She accentuates the playfulness of the lyrics with an alluring lilt.  Her reworking of "Happiness" from the film Scrooge is sealed in a symphonic glaze adorned in ambient soundscapes that transport the listener into an ethereal plane, evoking blissful dreams.

Fraser projects the spirit of a sensual feline along "Feeling Good," as her vocals nestle the languid curves of the melody.  Her rendition of the classic singalong tune "Pure Imagination" is enthralling.  Perceptively, the solemn mood opening "At the Crossroads After Today" switches to an uplifting sprint embodying an arresting pitch familiar to the listener of a young Barbara Streisand, displaying a voicing that elicits audiences to a standing ovation.

As an aspiring Broadway star, Fraser scores huge as a vocalist that can evoke tender emotions in her audience, bringing them to tears one minute and waltzing in the aisles the next.  Her sensitive interpretation of Bricusse's repertoire reawakens familiar tunes with Fraser's clarion voicing combined by her sharp instincts and melodic sensibilities.